Advances in semiconductor manufacturing have made it possible to incorporate large amounts of logic circuitry on an integrated circuit. In turn, this has led to advances in digital systems architecture. One particular area of digital systems architecture that has benefited greatly from the capability to include vast arrays of logic circuitry on a single integrated circuit is processor design.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrates various components, their arrangements, and interconnections, and is not drawn to scale.